Archive for the ‘Slogans’ Category

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Comes a pause in the day’s occupations

November 18, 2021

… that is known as Miller Time … when you deserve a beer break today.

None of this makes sense unless you know the advertising slogans: It’s Miller Time (for Miller High Life beer, not for novelist Henry Miller, playwright Arthur Miller, or bandleader Glenn Miller), You Deserve a Break Today (for McDonald’s, hawking hamburgers, not beer). But Calvin knows:


(#1) The Calvin and Hobbes strip distributed today, originally published 10/9/86, alluding to “Miller Time” slogans in Miller High Life beer commercials from the period

Calvin is supposed to be 6 years old — admittedly, with the sensibilities of a boy of roughly 10, but, still, not expected to be familiar with the ways of beer-drinking, so his father is alarmed that Calvin seems to be looking forward to a brew after the occupations of his day. (Whatever happened to the Children’s Hour? Television happened.)

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Posted in Language and food, Language in advertising, Linguistics in the comics, Slogans, Understanding comics | Leave a Comment »

Clash of the titular Peppers

September 1, 2021

Today’s Wayno/Piraro Bizarro, a cartoon that would be totally incomprehensible without several pieces of pop-cultural knowledge:


(#1) (If you’re puzzled by the odd symbols in the cartoon — Dan Piraro says there are 3 in this strip — see this Page.)

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Posted in Language and animals, Language and food, Linguistics in the comics, Logos, Names, Slogans, Understanding comics | Leave a Comment »

On the fisting patrol

April 11, 2018

Things you can do with a fist.

Yesterday, in my posting “Two cartoons from friends”, significant uncertainty about whether the verb to fist in the second cartoon was intended merely as a contact-action verb (roughly, ‘to punch’) or as a reference to a sexual practice. Right after that, friends posted photos of this t-shirt, on sale (in a range of sizes, from infants’ on up) in Walmart:

(#1) The fisting love t-shirt, available from many sources on amazon.com and elsewhere

Apparently intended as a joke, but possibly understood by some as an innocent reference to fist-bumping.

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Posted in Gesture, Language of sex, Rainbow, Signs and symbols, Slogans, Sociocultural conventions | 1 Comment »

Fifty shades and the Justice League

March 21, 2018

(Gay porn in several media, some featuring BDSM and other fetishes. Use your judgment.)

Annals of parodies and puns on titles, with a gay slant: Fifty Shades of Grey (the books and the movie), Justice League (the movie).

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Posted in Books, Gay porn, Gender and sexuality, Parody, Puns, Slogans | Leave a Comment »

Three more pumpkin-spicy bits

October 26, 2017

On the 23rd, “The pumpkin spice cartoon meme”, with a variety of developments of pumpkin spice ‘spice for pumpkin (pie)’ to concrete uses for the flavor of such spice and the scent of such spice and then to figurative uses ‘special, extraordinary’ and from there ‘top-grade’. Now, some further developments:

The possibility that Pumpkin Spice might be a Spice Girl (Michael Palmer asks on Facebook, “Which of the Spice Girls is Pumpkin Spice?”).

More generally, the rule of thumb: if spice, then pumpkin spice, as in this playful e-card:

(#1) The verb spice up > pumpkin spice up

And, as also illustrated in #1, the metonymical extension of pumpkin spice to ‘autumnal’ (thanks to the association of the spice with the fall).

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Posted in Language and food, Language play, Metonymy, Music, Names, Slogans | 2 Comments »

I’m silently labeling you an asshole

October 5, 2017

Accidentally encountered on the net yesterday: this t-shirt triumph of supercilious peeving:

(#1)

It’s also available on signs, mugs, plaques, and goodness knows what else. Dare I hope for underwear?

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Posted in Clothing, Errors, Mistakes, Psychology of language, Slogans, Sociolinguistics | 2 Comments »

Fags Before Flags, and other in-your-face t-shirts

May 14, 2017

(Plain talk about men’s bodies and sexual practices, so use your judgment.)

Thanks to Greg Parkinson for a link to this John Crisvitello t-shirt:

(#1)

The slogan is a send-up of the odious BROS BEFORE HOS, preserving only the rhyming, the street language, and a message about balancing allegiances. My reading of the slogan is that it calls for gay men to generally value bonds to other gay men — fags stand with fags — over the sorts of allegiances expressed in flags: nationality, regional identity, religion, race and ethnicity, political affiliation, etc.

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Posted in Clothing, Gender and sexuality, Language of sex, Movies and tv, Music, Phallicity, Slogans | Leave a Comment »

Play with Obi Wan Kenobi

March 23, 2016

Today on Pinterest, a couple of plays on the name Obi Wan Kenobi (of Star Wars fame): a Latino variant and a food variant. May the silliness be with you!

(#1)

Juan with his lightsaber

(#2)

Obi Wan Cannoli

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Posted in Language and food, Language play, Slogans | 1 Comment »

Viking Kids

January 18, 2016

Posted on Facebook yesterday, this entertaining composition:

  (#1)

The caption combines two kinds of word play on the original It takes a village to raise a child: a word exchange, of village and child; and a pun on raise / raze. And it alludes to the reputation of the Vikings as ravaging and pillaging as they move across the countryside.

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Posted in Captions, Linguistics in the comics, Proverbs, Puns, Quotations, Semantics, Slogans, Word exchanges | Leave a Comment »

Search for the magic slogan

August 2, 2015

Today’s Dilbert, with a brainstorming session at the office:

b (#1)

All they need is a magic slogan, in three words, clearly explaining everything the new product does. Labels — names — aren’t good at doing this task, and slogans (which are primarily designed for conveying emotions) are even worse than labels.

And yes, Alice, “Keep Doing It” is in some sense already taken. Several times, probably.

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Posted in Formulaic language, Linguistics in the comics, Music, Slogans | Leave a Comment »

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